Rule

Wyoming’s Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (OGCC) on Tuesday approved revisions to the state’s wellhead natural gas flaring rules, gaining some praise and caution from environmental groups.

President Obama vetoed a Congressional resolution disapproving of his administration’s plan to rewrite the controversial Clean Water Rule (CWR) on Tuesday.

Total monetary sanctions handed down by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) this year totaled more than $3.2 billion, including an $800 million sanction, the largest in the commission’s history, according to Chairman Timothy Massad.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) violated federal law by using an array of social media platforms to promote its controversial Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, and conducted a campaign of “covert propaganda” over an 18-month period.

The Obama administration joined a coalition of environmental groups in filing an appeal over a federal judge’s ruling in September to block rules governing hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on public and tribal lands from taking effect.

Critics of the Interior Department’s proposed Well Control Rule told a Senate panel Tuesday that regulators are taking a one-size-fits-all approach that will only provide a modest improvement to offshore drilling safety. But the government fired back, saying the industry had conducted a “bad analysis” and inflated the overall cost of the rule: $883 million, versus $32 billion.

A host of federal agencies have updated their regulatory agendas as part of the Fall 2015 Unified Agenda and Regulatory Plan released late last week by the Obama administration, offering hints about what to expect from a number of key regulations affecting the oil and gas industry.

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth District in Cincinnati on Friday blocked implementation nationwide of the controversial U.S. Water Rule from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

FERC has denied a request from a group of utilities and state regulators from Southwest states for rehearing of Order No. 809, which was issued earlier this year to revise regulations related to the scheduling of transportation service on interstate natural gas pipelines to better coordinate scheduling practices of the wholesale gas and electric industries [RM14-2].